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Roster Details Confirmed for 2014-15 BCHL Season:

In an interview with The Chilliwack Progress, Chiefs GM and Head Coach Jason Tatarnic confirmed the details behind the BCHL roster changes for the 2014-15 season, which were approved by league governors at last week’s annual general meeting.

This is what was released from the league earlier this week after the AGM:

Roster stability and reduction of player transactions are primary goals for the BCHL. Representatives of each club at the AGM strongly supported the league’s direction to keep players on the teams they are recruited to for the start of each season.

In detail, the first change is the reduction from 45 cards to 35. Every time a team adds a player to its roster, the team is required to “card” the player with Hockey Canada. Now with only 35 cards available between June 1st and January 10th, teams must be more efficient when it comes to signing players. A regular season roster is 22 players (or cards), which leaves just 13 additional cards to make changes with.

The second change is a cap on player transfers during the season. The league has put a limit of eight per team for the upcoming season. The key here is that the BCHL doesn’t mean a cap of eight trades per team, it’s a cap of eight player transfers per team.

Using a trade from last season as an example, when Penticton traded Clint Filbrandt and Mathew Berry-Lamontagna to Cowichan Valley for Steen Cooper, it would now count as three player transfers for both the Vees and Capitals, leaving each team with five remaining.

It might seem dramatic, but in reality, eight player transfers should be very manageable for each team. 16 teams times eight transfers each = 128 transfers overall for the league.

According to the BCHL Transactions page, last season saw 69 transfers involving players being acquired by teams, led by Trail. The Smoke Eaters acquired nine new players via transfer between September 6th and January 10th. Alberni Valley, West Kelowna and Cowichan Valley were next with seven, followed by Vernon with six, Surrey, Penticton and Chilliwack with five, Merritt, Salmon Arm, Victoria, and Nanaimo at three, Coquitlam and Prince George with two, Langley with one, and Powell River at none.

Once again, according to the BCHL Transactions page, 2013-14 saw 78 player transfers to other teams between September 6th and January 10th. Trail led the way with 13 players moved out, followed by Penticton, Vernon, Cowichan Valley, and Surrey with seven, West Kelowna and Merritt with six, Alberni Valley and Coquitlam at five, Chilliwack and Salmon Arm with four, Langley, Victoria, and Prince George with two, and Nanaimo with one. The Powell River Kings made no transfers to other teams with their players.

Thirdly, the BCHL has now put a restriction on transfers involving future considerations. Basically any team transferring a player to another team as futures means the player can’t return to the team which transferred him the following season. In simpler terms, this eliminates the potential of a player being a playoff “rental” for one team, only to see him return to the team that transferred him.